Nasty Shadows
An Experience in the Theatre
15/11/09 08:09 Filed in: Writing
After more than a week of sunshine, New Brunswick is
getting pounded with rain this morning. Rainfall
warnings and everything: 50 to 60 mm expected; 75 mm
or more possible. Sounds to me like a day to stay
inside and write. Of course, I'll probably watch or
listen to football instead.
My Hamilton Tiger Cats play their first playoff game in years this afternoon, taking on the BC Lions in the Eastern Conference Semi-Final. I know: how does a team from Vancouver get into the "Eastern" conference semi-final? Don't ask. We don't get the TV network that's showing the game so I may have to listen to the radio broadcast from Hamilton on the internet. Gotta love the internet!
Last night, instead of writing, I went with Patti and some friends to see a play at the local University. The play, Marion Bridge, was written by maritime playwright Daniel MacIvor and performed by something called the "Nasty Shadows Theatre Company". Having never heard of MacIvor, the Nasty Shadows group nor any of the actors, I didn't go in with high expectations.
I was pleasantly surprised.
The story of three very different sisters coming together as their mother sinks slowly into death, Marion Bridge inspires both laughter and tears. Two of the sisters, Agnes and Theresa, have responded to their family-of-origin issues by swinging their personal pendulums as far apart as they can. It is through the process of their mother's passing that the pendulums start to come together again and they discover, or re-discover, that which connects them as family.
Director Scott Shannon (who also voices soap opera character Justin, filtering into the action from off stage) does an excellent job of keeping up a brisk pace while providing visual interest by moving his actors deftly around the very simple, single set.
Julie MacDonald plays Agnes, a demoralised actor who returns to Cape Breton in an alcohol-induced daze, filled with anger and resentment toward a mother who forced her to give up a baby early in her life. MacDonald handles the part well, taking great care to let her character's deep-seated issues ooze slowly out while providing the interpersonal fireworks that drive much of the first act of the play.
Elizabeth Goodyear is terrific as "Sister" Theresa, the self-sacrificing middle sister who chose to become a Nun as her way of dealing with the family-of-origin stuff. Tightly wound and usually self-contained, Theresa breaks down in an extended diatribe aimed at Agnes in the second act. It's a difficult scene for any actor, with MacIvor's dialogue spiralling towards over-wrought emotion and silly melodrama, but Goodyear manages to maintain a perfect balance to her delivery, filling the words with emotion while avoiding going too far.
Rebekah Chasse plays Louise, the youngest sister, who apparently never left home. In perhaps the most difficult part in the play, Chasse must convey a wide range of the character's personal issues (her loneliness, her resentment at being treated as "different", her uncertain sexuality, her simple but complicated relationships with her mother and her two elder sisters), all the while constrained by the character's limited mental capacity. Chasse is not perfect in the role (struggling from time to time with her lines, failing to sell her character's emotional reactions to her childhood, her mother and her mother's death as effectively as her co-stars) but her performance is strong enough to contribute to the overall effectiveness of the play.
The only real negative on the night was the behaviour of several members of the audience. At various points throughout this poignant and emotional experience, the following took place among the spectators: two audience members in the front row got into some sort of whispered discussion that lasted for at least 45 seconds; one spectator allowed his cell phone to go off, very loudly, and ring four times, then instead of turning it off entirely he set it to vibrate so that those sitting anywhere near him could still hear the buzz of the vibrating phone; and another audience member first dropped a full can of pop heavily to the floor and, in trying to pick it up, rolled it noisily back and forth under his seat and then, during a particularly quiet scene, decided to crack the can open and take a swig. It's a credit to the actors on stage that they managed to ignore this rude behaviour and keep the play moving; it's a credit to the other people in the audience that they didn't turn on these inconsiderate cretins and forcibly remove them from the theatre.
All of that aside, it was an enjoyable theatre experience. Playwright Daniel MacIvor is new to me but, on the basis of this complex and interesting work, I will look out for more from him. And from Nasty Shadows.
My Hamilton Tiger Cats play their first playoff game in years this afternoon, taking on the BC Lions in the Eastern Conference Semi-Final. I know: how does a team from Vancouver get into the "Eastern" conference semi-final? Don't ask. We don't get the TV network that's showing the game so I may have to listen to the radio broadcast from Hamilton on the internet. Gotta love the internet!
Last night, instead of writing, I went with Patti and some friends to see a play at the local University. The play, Marion Bridge, was written by maritime playwright Daniel MacIvor and performed by something called the "Nasty Shadows Theatre Company". Having never heard of MacIvor, the Nasty Shadows group nor any of the actors, I didn't go in with high expectations.
I was pleasantly surprised.
The story of three very different sisters coming together as their mother sinks slowly into death, Marion Bridge inspires both laughter and tears. Two of the sisters, Agnes and Theresa, have responded to their family-of-origin issues by swinging their personal pendulums as far apart as they can. It is through the process of their mother's passing that the pendulums start to come together again and they discover, or re-discover, that which connects them as family.
Director Scott Shannon (who also voices soap opera character Justin, filtering into the action from off stage) does an excellent job of keeping up a brisk pace while providing visual interest by moving his actors deftly around the very simple, single set.
Julie MacDonald plays Agnes, a demoralised actor who returns to Cape Breton in an alcohol-induced daze, filled with anger and resentment toward a mother who forced her to give up a baby early in her life. MacDonald handles the part well, taking great care to let her character's deep-seated issues ooze slowly out while providing the interpersonal fireworks that drive much of the first act of the play.
Elizabeth Goodyear is terrific as "Sister" Theresa, the self-sacrificing middle sister who chose to become a Nun as her way of dealing with the family-of-origin stuff. Tightly wound and usually self-contained, Theresa breaks down in an extended diatribe aimed at Agnes in the second act. It's a difficult scene for any actor, with MacIvor's dialogue spiralling towards over-wrought emotion and silly melodrama, but Goodyear manages to maintain a perfect balance to her delivery, filling the words with emotion while avoiding going too far.
Rebekah Chasse plays Louise, the youngest sister, who apparently never left home. In perhaps the most difficult part in the play, Chasse must convey a wide range of the character's personal issues (her loneliness, her resentment at being treated as "different", her uncertain sexuality, her simple but complicated relationships with her mother and her two elder sisters), all the while constrained by the character's limited mental capacity. Chasse is not perfect in the role (struggling from time to time with her lines, failing to sell her character's emotional reactions to her childhood, her mother and her mother's death as effectively as her co-stars) but her performance is strong enough to contribute to the overall effectiveness of the play.
The only real negative on the night was the behaviour of several members of the audience. At various points throughout this poignant and emotional experience, the following took place among the spectators: two audience members in the front row got into some sort of whispered discussion that lasted for at least 45 seconds; one spectator allowed his cell phone to go off, very loudly, and ring four times, then instead of turning it off entirely he set it to vibrate so that those sitting anywhere near him could still hear the buzz of the vibrating phone; and another audience member first dropped a full can of pop heavily to the floor and, in trying to pick it up, rolled it noisily back and forth under his seat and then, during a particularly quiet scene, decided to crack the can open and take a swig. It's a credit to the actors on stage that they managed to ignore this rude behaviour and keep the play moving; it's a credit to the other people in the audience that they didn't turn on these inconsiderate cretins and forcibly remove them from the theatre.
All of that aside, it was an enjoyable theatre experience. Playwright Daniel MacIvor is new to me but, on the basis of this complex and interesting work, I will look out for more from him. And from Nasty Shadows.